Honduran Youth Activist Discusses Resistance Movement

September 23, 2013

Join the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) as we partner with UNM Peace Studies, Witness for Peace Southwest, and the Honduran Solidarity Network to welcome Ana Gabriela Rivera, a 25-year-old resistance leader from the organization Los Necios based in Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa. Ana will speak on her formative experiences in the organization as well as the current conditions in Honduras, providing a firsthand account of the resistance movement in Honduras. The discussion will be held On Wednesday, September 25, 2013, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. at the LAII. For reference, see the event flyer.

Since the 2009 military coup d'etat in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Ana Rivera has been active in the Honduran Resistance movement, which arose in opposition to the coup. As a coordinator of the Feminist Marxist Collective called Las Necias, a branch of the Organización Política Los Necios, Ana Rivera has emerged as a prominent leader in the struggle for LGBT rights, environmental rights, and women's rights in Honduras.

Since the coup, Hondurans have experienced severe repression. This includes assassinations of 104 peasant cooperative leaders in the Aguan Valley, 59 lawyers, 33 journalists, 99 LGBQT activists and dozens of unionists and teachers (Witness for Peace). Yet Hondurans have organized an unprecedented resistance movement in all sectors of the nation. Ana Rivera is among hundreds of thousands of Hondurans who have taken to the streets to call for social justice and human rights.

On November 24, 2013, Hondurans will head to the polls for the presidential election. As the militarized elections in November 2009 were considered fraudulent by almost all international organizations, these elections represent a crucial time in Honduran history. Join us to learn more about the grassroots struggle for human rights and democracy in Honduras.